Writer: David Tischman
Artists: Steve Conley
Publisher: IDW
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 25th July
Star Trek: Year Four is one of those ideas that’s so simple, so obvious that it sits out in plain sight with no one noticing. What happened in the final years of the five year mission? What did the Enterprise see? How did it affect the crew?
This would have been very easy to do badly, or, even worse, competently. After all, all you need to do is throw in some witticisms, the odd fist fight, a beautiful woman for Captain Kirk to seduce and a chance for Spock to be grumpy and it’s a licence to print money, right?
Thankfully, David Tischman’s script is typically well structured and filled with not only affection for the source material but a keen eye for how to progress it. The end result is a combination of ‘60s pulp mania and a story that manages to riff on Prospero, the age of the super viruses and the way the characters have changed over the last three years.
The key image here is the Strand, a solar system sized DNA strand with planets and moons linked together in a colossal double helix. The Strand is an ancient medical facility that a modern geneticist has taken control of and, apparently, is all set to sweep disease off the face of the galaxy. It’s also quite impossibly cool, an idea which is simple, vast and beautifully rendered by Steve Conley.
The Strand is inhabited by Othello Beck, a brilliant Doctor and his B’nai, genetically engineered beings that Beck is using as a combination of guinea pigs and staff. He does, of course, have a dark secret and equally unsurprisingly, a beautiful daughter but Tischman deals with the central conceit so well, and without a hint of self parody or smugness that you simply don’t mind. Instead, the story plays out like the best elements of classic Star Trek, exploring ideas including mortality, ethical science and how much you’d sacrifice for your loved ones as well as hitting all the usual notes associated with the series.
Thematically, and visually, this is a pitch perfect continuation of the original series. Fans will love picking out the unusually subtle nods to other elements of the franchise and new readers will be relieved to see that, like IDW’s previous Star Trek series this is a series of high quality, self contained stories. Whichever you are, this is another high quality entry in IDW’s increasingly impressive array of Star Trek titles. If you’re even remotely curious about where the Enterprise boldly went next, you need to take a look at this.
Alasdair started writing when he was nine, powered by a hefty diet of '80s cartoons, Doctor Who and Icepops. He's quite tired by this stage but has written a lot of things for a lot of people, including Fortean Times, Neo and Surreal.